Las Vegas Barter Hours
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Las Vegas Barter Hours "En La Gente Confiamos" |
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Barter Hours Memberships are only $5/year—and come with 4 free Barter Hours and a Members' Services Directory (2 Barter Hours for renewals). Do it now!
We're hosting a new member orientation on Friday, May 11th at 3pm at Pedro's Bakery on Grande Avenue — please tell anyone you know who may be interested in joining. Call Cordia or Dianne at 426-1468 for more information.
There will be a Barter Hours Pot Luck Picnic at 5:30pm on Tuesday, May 29th in South Pacific Park (2 Blocks South of the Plaza) in Las Vegas. We hope to see you there!
Since Barter Hours members have been working together so much lately, we figured it's time to explain the difference between Work Parties and Labor Exchanges.
Work Parties are loosely-organized; anyone can organize a work party for their project, advertise it in the newsletter, the email list and by word-of-mouth. People who come to work parties are traditionally paid with:
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For help organizing a work party, call Kait Saboe at (619) 204-6139 (cell) or Willow Allen at (505) 860-8821 (cell) or (575) 587-1888 (home phone) and they'll help you start organizing and publicizing your event.
Labor Exchanges, a 'brainchild' of Patrick Morrow, are a more-organized form of work party. Labor exchange groups' members each make a good-faith commitment to help at every get-together within their exchange. In return for working at each labor exchange, the group moves from member to member's project in order (determined by drawing). This way, each member gets to have their project worked on and the group becomes closer and more accustomed to working with each other.
To organize or join a Labor Exchange, call Sherrill Martinez at (505) 454-1572 or (505) 718-5119 (cell), or Cathy Kahn at (505) 454-1570 or (505) 426-5453 (cell) and they'll help you get started!
| Barter Hours E-Mail List |
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or by E-Mail |
The Barter Hours E-Mail Trading List is working, with 44 members participating.
The List allows participating BH'ers to offer and make trades in real time, simply by sending one e-mail (the rest is automatic!).
To join the list, please contact Jack with your e-mail address and I'll sign you up.
If you're already signed up, USE THIS LINK TO POST EMAIL TO TRADING LIST.
A magazine called "Five" published in Taos, New Mexico (Five: creativity for a new environment) recently included an article, "Bartering" by Joel Mockovciak. The article described the evolution of barter clubs called "Truque clubs" in Argentina, South America. In 1995 the deep recession, soaring commodity prices and 200% inflation led 3 professionals in Buenos Aires to found the first "Truque" or barter club with 30 members.
By 2001 Argentina had 450 clubs in 20 provinces with more than 500,000 active participants. An alternative currency used by the clubs, called scrips, in 2001 was estimated to be circulating in excess of a dollar value of seven million dollars!
In the U.S., barter clubs have been springing up as well. To find out more about models of exchange that involve bartering check out these websites listed below:
In these difficult days it is easy to lose hope. Many are depressed because they've been without a job for months—even years—with no chance to be employed at their skill level. There are a lot of experts with ideas about what we can do, but there are times that we feel we can do no more.
Some of us face issues of survival daily, fearing we may lose everything. Others give up because—somewhere inside us—we're aware that we've been living quite well. Our fear is that we'll not be able to rebound to that same level. We may be limiting ourselves with that expectation. We've closed ourselves into a closet. We have no elbow-room. No time to do what we really want to do.
The problem is that most of us have been so busy in our rush to success that we haven't had time to explore the rest of our lives. This is a perfect time to do just that. While we need to continue to contact prospective employers, we can relax from the frenetic pace that our former job demanded.
Whether we know it or not, we may have lost some of our deeper needs. There's actually more to life than work. Yes, really. Certainly responsibilities to us and to our family to find food, clothing and shelter are vital. When these are threatened, we may just hunker down in our closed homes.
Staying in the same place is not as secure, though, as we like to pretend it is. Scientists tell us that everything is made up of atoms—including our bodies. Atoms move. That means that change is constantly happening. Do we really want to spend our lives living in fear of change? We need to allow our world to vary from our expectations, to be open to something new, even to welcome it.
It's good for each of us to measure our own existence. Many questions come to the surface: Who am I? What am I doing here on this planet? What goals do I have? Have I changed them as I've learned and grown in my life? Why am I alive? What do I want to live for? These are all significant questions that we forget when we get busy. This is hard. However, as we stagger around on these questions, we can begin to actually play with the imbalance, as though we were on a trampoline. Then we lose our fear of it, and begin to see that we want to make changes in our lives.
There's a theory that an emergency is really an opportunity for emergence—a chance to bloom. It's time to stop running. Just stop! Get down to basics. Listen to your breathing. Then breathe deeply, slowly. Feel your pulse. Hear your tone of voice. How long has it been since you laughed? Cried? Enjoyed a person? Read a book? Played with a child? Helped someone? These are all motivating actions for our existence. They're what we truly live for. Without such meaning, life becomes humdrum, driven, or futile. One-dimensional. At least we can feel hope as we wait.
There are other things we could do. Be gentle with ourselves and others. Indulge in daydreaming. Remember our younger days and the things we'd hoped to do as our lives progressed. Listen to others' dreams. Share feelings. Tell people we love them-often. Hugs are satisfying, and we need to give them frequently. We also need to get together with others who share our feelings.
Finally we can truly respect ourselves, our families, our friends. After all, there's power in solving problems together. Then we know that life can be a joy much of the time. It's true. Cross my heart and hope—to live!
Come join the Northeast NM Permaculture Discussion Forum and contribute your permaculture ideas to the discussion begun by local permaculturist and barterer Lee Einer in May '09. With a little group effort we can make this a valuable local resource for creating sustainability.
If you're not familiar with the 'Wiki' concept, this is a form of discussion where any member can create new articles, and can add to or edit already-existing articles. In this way we add to each others' perspectives and knowledge—the resulting articles grow out of group dynamics and a synthesis of multiple perspectives instead of being one person's ideas all coming from a single limited viewpoint.
Don't be shy—we want to hear your ideas!
Adopt a Legislator! Excellent tips on how to form a more personal relationship with your legislator(s) and have greater input into state and local affairs.
Barter Hours member Bob Wallace has started the Las Vegas Issues Forum. The purpose of the list is "to provide a safe, open, online space for the discussion of issues that matter in Las Vegas and surrounding communities..."
If you're interested in joining the discussion group (we need your voice!), you can sign up for Las Vegas Issues Forum here.
